History of Okaloosa County
by Fran Roberts
Okaloosa was an Indian word meaning "a pleasant place," "black water" or
"beautiful place" depending on the translation the word. The Euchees
came into the area from the "west" sailing along the coast until "the great
spirit told them to stop" in what is now Walton County. They left the Indian
Mounds that we see today, one being in what is now downtown Fort Walton
Beach. There was even a pirates cove near Mary Esther. Even the notorious
pirate LaFitte was said to have docked there.
The first white settlers came to the area about 1820-1825. They were
Scotsmen probably from North Carolina and settled around the Yellow River.
The first church was Presbyterian built in 1828. Soon settled were the
communities of Almirante (Almarante), Bethel, Beaver Creek, Oak Grove
and Laurel Hill, Dorcas and Mossy Head. Frontier conditions existed in the
area and the land was made up of sandy soil upland with clay subsoil and
white sandy soil in the lower areas. The principal waterway was the Yellow
River. This part of Florida experienced little fighting in the Civil War but was
guarded by the "Walton Guards" at a place called Camp Walton for which
Fort Walton Beach derived its name. The Okaloosa area contributed food
and men to the Confederate effort. In the early 1900's, the pine tree
became the main source of wealth in the form of timber cutting and
turpentine stills. This caused railroads to be built to transport these goods
to market. After this resource was exhausted, the lands were opened for
farming and ranching.
Before Okaloosa County was created, the population was scattered in
the area. The distance between the Santa Rosa County seat, Milton, and
Walton County seat, DeFuniak was about 70 miles with only poor roads,
making travel to a county seat almost impossible. In fact when Okaloosa
County was created there were no paved roads. Refer to the history of
Walton County on their GENWEB site for a more detailed description of
the Panhandle area of Florida.
It took the Legislature several years to approve the creation of Okaloosa
County from parts of Santa Rosa and Walton Counties. On September 7,
1915 the issue was settled. Credit was given to state representative, W. H.
Mapoles from Laurel Hill, later known as the "Daddy of Okaloosa County."
Milligan was made the temporary county seat and on March 6, 1917 a
county election made Crestview the permanent county seat. Crestview
was named because it is located on the crest of a high ridge on the forks
of the Shoal and Yellow Rivers. The 1920 census of the county gave a
county population of 9,360 persons. Okaloosa reaches from the Alabama
state line to the Gulf of Mexico. The county was formed by taking 12
miles in width from Santa Rosa and Walton counties and is 24 miles wide
and 40 miles long and contains 998 square miles.
Some communities in the new county were Baker, Holt, Crestview,
Mary Esther, Wright, Shalimar, Fort Walton, Garniers Bayou, Destin,
Laurel Hill, Dorcas Deerland, Beaver Creek, Auburn, Niceville, Valparaiso
and Escambia Farms. The most prominent occupations were farming,
sheep and cattle ranching and in the lower county fishing. Timbering was
always part of the way of life in those days. Eglin Air Force base was begun
about 1935 and has increased in mission and size to be the center of
economics in the county. Okaloosa County is currently known for its
beautiful beaches, water sports and for Eglin Air Force Base. The
population in 1990 was 143,776 and in 1995 about 162,700 persons.
Bibliography: History of Okaloosa County, by Henry Allen Dobson, 1974;
History of Okaloosa County, by Jerry M. McDonald, Aug 1968 and several
small unpublished papers in the Fort Walton Beach library.
The following is a history I found in the files that I inherited upon taking
over the website, so now you have two versions:
Okaloosa County, was created by an act of Legislature,and ratified by a vote
of the people at an election held September 7, 1915. The name "Okaloosa"
derived from the Indian words "Oka" and "Lus" meaning "Blackwater" was
given to the area in 1913.
During the English occupation of Florida, 1763-1783, Bernard Romans saw
the swamps along the Yellow River, as potentially valuable rice lands, but
the English withdrew from Florida before any effort could be made to
develop them.
By 1824, the Old Spanish Trail was in bad shape, and building roads in that
location was found to be difficult because of the contour of the land, so,
congress authorized the building of a military road which would be less
intricate and a easier one, which followed the coast line between Pensacola
and Choctawhatchee Bays. Because the better lands of this regions lay to
the North, this section of the military road was never traveled much.
Between 1881 and 1883, the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad now a part of
the Louisville and Nashville System, was built from Choctawhatchee to
Pensacola. Among the small stations that sprang up in route were Holt and
Crestview. From Crestview the Yellow River Railroad Company, organized in
1887, built a line northwestward to Florala, Alabama, which opened up
valuable farming and timberlands. Lumber and Naval stores soon became
the most important products, but these industries, controlled from
Pensacola, exploited rather than developed the resources of the area.
Laurel Hill was the first town in Okaloosa County territory to be
incorporated, and its population in 1915, when the county was created, was
only 300.
Citizens in the area saw the need for a courthouse between those at DeFuniak
Springs and Milton, 70 miles apart, and following the creation of Okaloosa
County in 1915, Milligan, a sawmill town in the center of the county was
designated as the temporary county seat. At an election held March 6, 1917,
the town of Crestview was made the permanent county seat.
The first courthouse was built in 1918, following the passage of a special act
at the 1917 session of the legislature which authorized the issuance of time
warrants. In 1919, a jail was constructed and furnished at an additional
expenditure.
The modern day county seat, Crestview, boast of such fabulous structures
as a new court house, completed in 1955, a modernistic and spacious
health clinic building and numerous modern-day businesses and homes,
as well as facilities.
The southern half of Okaloosa County was slow to begin the development,
because of the difficulty of getting to and from this scenic wonder of nature.
In 1920, the population of the entire county was only 9,360, which practically
all this being in the Northern half of the county.